The Writing Process: It’s Been Awhile

by Scott Smith

THE CREATIVE WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE by John McNally

This book delivers more than I expected. As the title suggests, it isn’t a “how-to-write” book. McNally warns the reader right up front in the first section: “If you’re looking for a book so that you can learn how to write a short story, a novel, or a poem, you definitely need to look somewhere else.” Rather, it is “a highly subjective and idiosyncratic take on the writing life. …using my own life as well as the lives of other writers I’ve known as anecdotal support for my opinions on a wide range of subjects.”